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Monday, February 6, 2017

CAF Begins to Scale Back New Brunswick ice-storm assistance

By: Dabid Pugliese, Defence Watch

The Canadian military says it is continuing to provide assistance to New Brunswick’s relief efforts in some of the hardest hit parts of the Acadian Peninsula from the recent storm but it will begin to draw-down the military presence in those areas where the province has announced remaining relief efforts are within provincial and municipal capabilities. The remaining military members will be gradually returned to home units as conditions improve in these remaining communities, it added in a news release.

On January 27, the Province of New Brunswick first requested military assistance to conduct a reconnaissance to determine how the Canadian Forces could support relief efforts. The first troops arrived within 24 hours, the military noted in its release.

In a second request for assistance on January 29, the Province of New Brunswick requested federal government assistance in the form of military personnel and assets to conduct a variety of tasks, including delivering emergency supplies, assisting in re-establishing existing road networks, and supporting door-to-door residential wellbeing checks in the northeast of the province.

Here are more details from the news release:

More than 200 CAF members from 5 Canadian Division Support Base (Gagetown) including 4 Artillery Regiment General Support and 4 Engineering Support Regiment, and 37 Canadian Brigade Group (Moncton) deployed to support the Province of New Brunswick response efforts.

A CP-140 Aurora Maritime Patrol Aircraft based at 14 Wing Greenwood conducted an overflight to map and determine the extent of damage to infrastructure in the area. A CH-146 Griffon based at 403 Tactical Helicopter Squadron in Gagetown was used primarily for air transport.

In total, the CAF conducted over 5,400 door-to-door checks, assisted the Province in distributing generators, fuel, firewood and water, and surveyed more than 1,100 km of roads.